Authors of Pistorius tome prove a perfect fit
Pair of reporters inform and entertain in book of trial
When the authors, Mandy Wiener and Barry Bateman, first heard that Pistorius had shot his girlfriend, they were both wondering which one. There had been many.
Behind the Door by Mandy Wiener and Barry Bateman Interview by Diane de Beer
MANDY Wiener seems the perfect fit for a book about the Oscar Pistorius/Reeva Steenkamp trial following her success with Brett Kebble’s exposé and ghost writing Vusi Pikoli’s My Second Initiation.
“It’s been three books in three years,” she says, noting that she has promised her husband she will take a break.
She didn’t even take maternity leave – her first child was born during the Pistorius trial – because of the recent assignment.
Teaming up with Barry Bateman who has focused on crime for many years and is now a Radio 702 colleague was a good decision.
Whether it would be a perfect fit was possibly more of a risk than might be imagined.
At a recent book lunch, held by the Pretoria News, a Cape Argus sister newspaper, the two authors generously shared the writing process for Behind The Door.
In particular, they explained how they had made fresh a case that had endured so much scrutiny – second by second – for months on end. “We were blessed,” says Bateman. They knew they had a story that ticked all the boxes from the start.
But once everything was on a roll, and the trial started, they also knew that everyone would know almost everything about the case.
As investigative journalists, they had to work on specific angles to pique the interest of prospective readers.
They knew they were going to publish right after the judge’s verdict because there were a few books out already and it didn’t make sense to wait.
“We’ve been criticised,” says Wiener, obviously sensitive to what others have to said on the book’s timing. But she knows they did the right thing. She also addresses Judge Dennis Davis’s critique that they muddied the legal waters. “We were not writing a legal textbook. “The case was incredibly complex and in a sense we distilled the law for the normal public. “We had to explain concepts.” Mainly they were telling the Oscar/Reeva story to readers who had watched the case as fully as they could.
“It’s what we do,” says Wiener. “We tell stories.”
This duo clearly take the business of writing – and of entertaining as well as informing – seriously.
“The bulk of our writing was right at the end, the last three months,” says Bateman.
It was their journalistic sense that drove the project in this way.
Bateman describes their process as a game of tennis.
Copy would be passed to and fro as they checked, rechecked and made suggestions about how to tell the story.
“We wanted the best outcome,” he says and that lack of ego from both underlined their writing partnership.
“I was sitting on the couch and Barry was in court,” says Wiener.
“He would do the blow-by-blow, while I would give a more holistic overview and put in the narrative.”
They both touched every single word without being precious or possessive.
Bateman provided the detail from the courtroom and Wiener, who gave birth to her first child almost simultaneously with Pistorius’s first appearance, was happy to fill in with the colour, the nuances of the whole affair and to work the sources.
It seems like it was the perfect fit with no stepping on toes.
However, there were many surprises with this case and everything surrounding it.
“I’ve never had to fight my way into a courtroom,” says Bateman, who describes the joy of having a second set of eyes on everything that’s written as a godsend. “We had very defined roles,” he said. That made the process an easy one because of the time pressure which they knew would be an issue.
“Our deadlines were decided by a judge,” said Bateman.
For Bateman, though, the toughest challenge was the length at which he had to write.
“(Journalists) are generally confronted by 2 000-word stories at most,” he says.
Anyone working in print journalism understand the emphasis on brevity.
Things that fell their way included Steenkamp’s best friend granting an interview. “She hadn’t spoken to anyone,” says Bateman.
And Steenkamp herself was a bit of an unknown factor.
The two journalists say that when they first heard that Pistorius had shot his girlfriend, they were wondering which one. There had been many.
Other novel facts include their story on the second cellphone which Pistorius’s brother Carl had mysteriously taken and returned, as well as the phone calls that Pistorius had made to his previous girlfriend not too long before the killing .
What was that all about? And why did the prosecution not investigate any of that?
There’s also an intriguing tale about the blood in the toilet bowl in the bathroom where Steenkamp was murdered.
The book indicates that prosecutor Gerrie Nel relied too heavily on neighbours’ evidence which unravelled.
Bateman is still with Radio 702, while Wiener is starting a new chapter in her life. She will be freelancing (still on 702) and writing for various media and is keen to explore the possibility of podcasts.
“It’s a growing space in the South African market,” she says.
“I want to have the time to do things in depth. There are so many stories to be told,” she adds.
Meanwhile, she clearly knows how to tap into that wealth and intends to keep doing so.